ARARAT and the inner Grampians region need more Red Cross volunteers to help register people during and emergency and provide support after disasters.
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Red Cross Inner Grampians divisional operations officer Jan Barrie team convenor Tonie Duffin have urged people to sign up to spend a little bit of time to make the whole region safer in an emergency.
“We’re trying to recruit; we need to build on our numbers because were very low, especially in Ararat,” Ms Duffin said.
“People when they are evacuated after an event, we do the registrations on behalf of Victoria Police.
“We have only got three of us at the moment, so we always need to bring in volunteers from surrounding areas and sometimes in an emergency it’s not possible, in a fire or flood.”
The Red Cross Inner Grampians region includes the Ararat, Ballarat, Golden Plains, Hepburn, Moorabool, Pyrenees municipal areas.
The Red Cross will hold an information session at the Ararat Emergency Services Complex at 82 High St, Ararat from 10.30-11.30am on Tuesday.
Ms Duffin said the recruitment drive was about strengthening and expanding the group’s capacity to provide emergency services that are expected.
“We do things like psychological first aid, food and water for emergencies, and registration,” Ms Duffin said.
“We do outreach, which when after a disaster in the recovery period we go and visit the people who were affected to make sure they’re coping and see what assistance they need.
“We need to get more volunteers who can provide that service. It is a lot easier if we have local people who know the local area.”
Ms Duffin said it was a great experience to help people after a disaster.
“Any volunteers are required to do a two-day fundamentals training,” she said.
“They are expected to attend three training sessions in a year to keep up to date. It’s not that onerous, really.”
Those interested can contact Ms Duffin on 0409 522 402 or fill out the online recruitment form at www.redcross.org.au.